With some fanfare, the President has released a revised National Security Strategy . The major papers and the media are already dissecting the strategy with each focusing on a different part (e.g. the BBC highlighting the commitment to preemptive attacks while the NYT focusing on the document's attention on Iran as the single greatest threat. The document obviously has no...
I really like this short post by Nicholas Kristof on his blog. One of those rare instances in which a columnist of Kristof's stature forthrightly tells how he actually obtains the stories like the genocide in Sudan. I think many bloggers sometimes forget just how hard it is for real columnists like Kristof to do the heavy labor of primary research...
Nice article in the IHT by David Kaye on the impact of Milosevic's death on the reputation of the ICTY. "What's a trial without a verdict but a waste of time and money, which could have been better spent on rebuilding the Balkans? But it's not as easy as that. For all the trial's weaknesses, its lessons and legacy bear learning...
After being one of four countries to vote against the new Human Rights Council, the U.S. has announced that it will cooperate and even support funding for the new council. If that's the case, I'm not exactly sure what was the point of U.S. opposition in the first place In any event, as I've suggested, the new Human Rights Council...
Attorneys from Human Rights First have been liveblogging from the trial of Sgt. Michael Smith, which began this week at Fort Meade. The link is here. (Thanks to Amelia Field at HRF for the tip.) ...
According to Reuters, the Attorney General of Bolivia has charged Eduardo Rodriguez, Bolivia's former president, with treason for sending the country's only surface-to-air missiles to the U.S. to be destroyed. The legal complaint against Rodriguez was filed by Evo Morales, the current Bolivian president, who first made an issue of the secret operation in December as a presidential candidate. The...
An overwhelming majority of the U.N. General Assembly has voted to replace the Human Rights Commission with the new Human Rights Council. The vote was 170 to 4, with three abstentions. Voting against the new council were Israel, Palau, the Marshall Islands, and — not surprisingly — the U.S. Iran, Venezuela, and Belarus abstained. ...
Exxon has lost its bid to dismiss an alien tort statute lawsuit alleging it is liable for human rights abuses committed by Indonesian troops using its facilities in Indonesia. (thanks to Pointoflaw for the tip). I can't seem to find the district court opinion online, but it should set up an important test case for all corporate Alien Tort...
I have long criticized the deafening silence of the Arab world in the face of radical Islam. (See here and here). Where is the challenge to the extremism? Where is the Muslim moderation? Where is the voice of reason amidst the outrage and death threats? Thankfully, we are beginning to see some Arab moderates openly challenge radical Islam. The most...
The ECHR has refused to admit a case filed by Saddam Hussein against European countries that participated in the military invasion and deposition of his regime in Iraq. (Full text of the decision here) The obvious problem with Saddam's claim is jurisdictional. But his lawyers argued that "he fell within the jurisdiction of all the respondent States because they...
Salon.com has posted this important and comprehensive archive of all the publicly available photos and videos of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. The photos and videos were part of the US Army's own investigation into the abuses at the notorious prision, which the US recently announced it was shutting down. Salon has provided additional documentation that has to...
Last week the European Court of Human Rights rendered an important decision on paternal parental choice regarding the preservation of embryos. The case is Evans v. United Kingdom. The full text is available here and an official summary is available here. The story is quite heartbreaking. Natallie Evans and her partner, "J", were undergoing fertility treatment when she was diagnosed with...
